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Joy, Disappointment, Determination

Joy, Disappointment, Determination

Early Clinical Tests

Chapter:

(p.88)
Chapter Five Joy, Disappointment, Determination

Source:

The Lock and Key of Medicine

Author(s):

Lara V. Marks

Publisher:

Yale University Press

DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300167733.003.0005

This chapter considers the development of monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) for cancer treatment. In the early 1980s, many scientists were optimistic that Mabs would defeat cancer. In 1982, John Minna of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) predicted that Mabs would revolutionize cancer diagnosis within five years. The adoption of Mabs as probes for targeting and identifying the multitude of antigens on different cell types seemed to herald their use in detecting and classifying tumors on a hitherto unthinkable scale. Mabs also promised to deliver more precisely powerful tumor-cell-killing agents, such as chemotherapeutic drugs, radioactive isotopes, or toxins, and to provide a way of harnessing a patient's immune system to attack tumors. However, work in the cancer field proved less straightforward than anticipated, partly because much of the initial endeavor was undertaken by researchers in academic laboratories and clinics with limited resources. Funded by government and charitable sources, their work had only minimal support from industry. In addition, new cancer drugs faced stiff regulatory and ethical tests.

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PRINTED FROM YALE SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.yale.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Yale University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in YSO for personal use (for details see www.yale.universitypressscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy).date: 19 December 2018